Palestinian activist Odeh Hadalin (a.k.a. Awdah Hathaleen), who was featured in the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, was shot to death in the West Bank on Monday.
The news was initially reported by the film’s co-director, Yuval Abraham, who posted a video of an Israeli settler, identified as Yinon Levi, shooting at a group of activists in the village of Umm al-Khair, located in Masafer Yatta.
“An Israeli settler just shot Odeh Hadalin in the lungs, a remarkable activist who helped us film No Other Land in Masafer Yatta,” Abraham wrote alongside the video. “Residents identified Yinon Levi, sanctioned by the EU and US, as the shooter.” Two hours later, Abraham added in a comment, “Odeh just died from his wounds. He was murdered.”
No Other Land co-director Basel Adra added in an Instagram Story, “My dear friend Awdah was slaughtered this evening. He was standing in front of the community centre in his village when a settler fired a bullet that pierced his chest and took his life. This is how Israel erases us — one life at a time.”
Israeli police confirmed the death in a statement (via Al Jazeera). “Following the incident, the death of a Palestinian was confirmed,” they said. “His exact involvement in the incident is being verified.”
Levi was arrested following the incident. “An Israeli citizen was detained at the scene and then arrested by police for questioning,” Israeli police said in the statement. Four Palestinians were also arrested “in connection with the incident, along with two foreign tourists who were at the scene.”
Haaretz reported that Levi was sanctioned by several countries last year due to violence against Palestinians, while the Times of Israel noted that the sanctions put in place by the United States under the Biden administration were lifted by Donald Trump.
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Masafer Yatta is part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and was the main subject of No Other Land, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary earlier this year. The film was made between 2019 and 2023 and documents Israel’s violent treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank. Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since the start of the war between Israel and Gaza in October 2023.
“It’s great that we’re nominated [for an Oscar] and people are talking about it, but in a few months they will move on to the next film or the next thing,” Abraham told Rolling Stone in February. “And we are going to continue our work. It’s our life’s mission to end the injustice that is going on here and to make this place better. This is why we are not placing all of our emotion and heart on this Oscar, because it’s just the statue at the end of the day… people here are dying every single day. Gaza is destroyed as a place. Basel’s community might not exist in a few years if there is no change in U.S. foreign policy.”
In April, Hamdan Ballal, another of the film’s co-directors, was beaten and degraded by Israeli settlers, then blindfolded and detained at an army base, only weeks after winning an Oscar. The filmmaker and activist called the experience “the worst moment of my life” in a New York Times op-ed. “I could hear my wife and kids screaming and crying, calling for me and telling the men to go away,” he wrote of the attack, adding: “My wife and I both thought I would be killed. We feared what would happen to my family if I died.”
From Rolling Stone US
